Candidates give thoughts on Blind’ Boone home

Saturday

Mar 30, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2013 at 1:00 AM

Andrew Denney

Each of the candidates running for Columbia City Council in Tuesday's elections would like to see restoration work for the J.W. "Blind" Boone home in downtown Columbia completed, but they have different ideas for how much the city should spend on the work and how the building should be used when the work is complete.

Mayor Bob McDavid announced at a council meeting earlier this month that city staff had determined that the city had a $1.9 million surplus from its fiscal 2012 budget. He proposed that $500,000 be used to restore the interior of the Boone home and that the rest of the surplus be used for road resurfacing.

At the council's March 18 meeting, City Manager Mike Matthes proposed using $475,000 of the surplus for interior work on the Boone home, but council members questioned that amount. The city purchased the Boone home in 2000 for $163,510, and, in the years since, preservationists worked to convert the late ragtime pianist's home into a museum. An exterior restoration was completed in 2009, but preservationists have been unable to raise enough money to complete interior work.

When asked about the Blind Boone home on Tuesday during a candidate forum hosted by the local NAACP chapter — which was held at Second Missionary Baptist Church, just next door to the Boone home — McDavid, who is running for a second term, said that he favors forming a task force made up of engineers and representatives from local building trades to try and determine a better figure for how much the city should spend on restoring the structure. "The first thing we've got to figure out is what's this going to take?" McDavid said.

Sid Sullivan, who is challenging McDavid for his seat, said at the forum that he agreed with McDavid's idea to form a task force, but he said how the building would be used should be clearly outlined before restorations efforts begin.

"What we do with it is important," Sullivan said. "It is an important landmark for Columbians."

McDavid and Sullivan were the only candidates at the forum who were asked about their views on the Boone home.

Third Ward Councilman Gary Kespohl, who is running for a second term on the council, previously said the city should consider using the home as a homeless shelter, but he said in an interview that he has backed off the idea.

Kespohl said it could be more appropriate for the city to use the building to house a welcome center or city offices. He said he supports the idea of using volunteer labor to complete the work to help keep costs down. "It's a great community project for the city if people can donate their time," Kespohl said.

Karl Skala, who served as Third Ward council representative from 2007 to 2010 and is running to get his old seat back, called the idea of using the home as a homeless shelter "outrageous."

"We do need a homeless shelter, but not in a building that has that kind of historical significance to the city," Skala said. He said the home could be used to promote "musical tourism" in the city.

Fourth Ward Councilman Daryl Dudley, who is running in a three-way race for a second term to his seat, said he doesn't think the city should spend $500,000 on the restoration effort. He said the city should just focus its resources on making the building "habitable."

"I have no problem bringing the building up to code and doing that as inexpensively as we can," Dudley said.

Ian Thomas, the former director of the PedNet Coalition who is running for Dudley's seat, said while he was with PedNet the group was part of a coalition of local neighborhood groups and governmental entities that have been working to establish a black history walking trail in the city, and a restored Boone home has been considered for a stop along the trail.

As for paying for restoring the building, Thomas said he wasn't sure that restoration efforts should be funded as a direct allocation from the surplus, saying that it should be part of the city's "normal budget process."

Bill Weitkemper, a challenger for Dudley's seat who served as the city's sewer maintenance superintendent for more than 37 years before retiring in December, said he was unsure about using the building for a museum, saying that could leave the city with paying a museum curator's salary. He said the city could make the building an office for its citizen boards and commissions.

"It ought to be a nice building," Weitkemper said. "Maybe the community's got some other ideas about what to do with it."